Zittrain made an impression on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning declaring the internet in peril. A victim of its own success, it was now doomed as its own inherent 'generativity' had produced a dark undercurrent. The only way to safeguard its future was for stand alone appliances that act like walled medieval cities, vanguards and bastions against the teenage viral anarchy unleashed by open protocol.
I had just showered and shaved and was seriously tempted to go back to bed. We are all doomed. Unless we subscribe to an apple or an xbox walled environment we have no chance of survival in the wild, rugged, open terrain of the hostile worm ridden Internet ecosystem.
But Zittrain has a Donald Rumsfeld complex. He sees the world as pitched against him where as the evidence is overwhelmingly supportive of a collaborative, mutually supportive, self policed Internet community. Wikipedia is the obvious example, but any blog or open platform is testament to the over reaching and dominant force of human creativity that wins out. Viruses are chiefly a product of vanity rather than malicious intent, online terrorist insurgency remains benignly dormant. Zittrain concerns are well heeded, but as a pragmatic optimist I am hoping unneeded.
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